Don’t give it all away; spin the story out slowly…give tidbits for people to chew on before you give them the whole meal. Keep the mystery. Let the audience wonder “what the hell’s going on”. Keep them guessing, then surprise them or reward them with an “ahah!” moment. Intrigue makes for good drama.
We’re experiencing this first hand as the “authorities” tout that our fire is 90% contained. It ‘s been downgraded to a “ground fire”. “All is good”…Then why the HELL did the glow across the lake turn into fireballs in the wee hours of this morning? We watched as hundreds of trees “candled” (the comfortable, spin-doctored word for “exploding into flame”). Candling is the most dangerous and out of control type of forest fire there is. We watched until 3:00AM as towering plumes of fire ate their way down the hill. Our view will never be the same.
Today, not a word from the media about what has changed, or what is coming…Usually the pressed shirts are pretty good at fear mongering. But so far today …silence…Except mind you, the CONSTANT growl of water-bombers and the movie-familiar chop-chop of helicopters that exude a sense of panic in the smoky afternoon.
With all the mystery, I’ve got to tell you we’ve been glued to the binoculars and the internet forum where people like us are twittering and conjecturing about what they’ve witnessed. The drama is unfolding and we wonder why no one is telling us “what the hell is going on”. We are rapt…tense. So taking a lesson from the information police we put on our writer’s caps and do another tweak of the Rock Bottom script. Play with the tension, draw out the intrigue. Make it ebb and flow like the flames and smoke dancing above us.
